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Roderick

Feminism

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I think you've understood this comic to mean the exact opposite of what it means.

Read the article JamesM posted and you may see it in a different light.

No, I get it, it still bothers me. As with many things, I can't properly articulate exactly what I want to get across here (I've been sitting here for a good 20 minutes trying), so I'll just let it go.

Hell, this entire discussion bothers me for various (some spurious, some not) reasons. That's mostly my "humanity is stupid" kicking in though.

I'll go back to my corner.

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Vaguely related - the female version of Shepard is getting the spotlight more for Mass Effect 3 than in the past, being the star of at least one trailer and on the cover of the ME3 collector's edition. That alone, and the lack of it in the past, may be worth considering or even talking about, but the real internet scandal is regarding WHICH female Shepard it will be.

A Facebook campaign just recently ended during which people could vote, by way of "liking", for which of several versions of female Shepard they wished to be the default and marketing focus. As it turns out, the winner was a blonde Shepard with long(er) hair. Cue nerd rage, girl rage, random bystander rage. A fairly significant number of people seem to be unhappy with the "blonde bimbo" archetype, many of whom seem to be identifying as feminists, either angry that it was "clearly" men voting for the generic hottie, or angry that men and women have not seen fit to properly exercise their right to vote for the choice that is "interesting" or has "integrity".

I honestly can't tell who is being sexist or patriarchal at this point, but it definitely smells like it's in the air somewhere. Is it the many men who probably did vote for the hot blonde girl? Is it the women accusing everyone of having such shallow motives? Is it the very concept that being blonde somehow makes you stupid and promiscuous (that is definitely in there as a problem on both sides)? It's a pretty bizarre situation that makes me feel rather uncomfortable, and at this point, I'm not sure who to blame.

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Honestly, what'd they expect? In a hobby this is still mainly dominated by man children. I don't see the big deal, looking at the versions you could pick from you're really only picking from a hairdo, since all of them pretty much have the same face. I would've picked the blonde too, cause I like the way her hair looks.

I think it's more how Bioware is hyping up the fact that female shepard will be featured more prominently. Good for you, Bioware, but it's not really something to brag about. My problem is that they're saying "We care about women, honest! Look, female shepard!" but then make it feel sleazy as hell. Marketing bullshit. Bioware can suck a dick.

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The online poll to me seems like a way to outsource the responsibility for picking the "wrong" girl Shepard.

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Clearly, the voters are all Nazis.

I think that situation has too many unknown variables to really justify working up a good rage. Some people really do just like blondes, and they're entitled to that opinion, no matter how wrong it is.

Was this election run by the publishers? Was it binding?

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I really don't know what to say. I played ME as a female Sheppard, seemed more suitable for the character (human race otoh wasn't relevant). But in the end, it doesn't really matter if you played as male or female. It would have been interesting if it did. I don't think you can pick any side in this whole ME3 female Sheppard voting withing being a sexist. Besides, it's simply a popularity vote. For me, all Sheppards shown were wrong (I would have picked a brunette version of the blonde). Also, why is the blonde suddenly a bimbo? Just because she's blonde? Would it have been better if a fugly red head would have won?

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Was this election run by the publishers? Was it binding?

Yeah, I think the poll was official, and that the blonde Shepard will now be the marketing focus. I don't really have anything against BioWare for this, it may seem like they're doing little to be proud of, but they're still doing more in terms of honestly portraying people of inclinations and genders and so on that aren't considered the "norm" as equals than most games developers. Especially when considering they're owned by one of the largest publishers (and therefore biggest targets) in the industry, they're actually pretty forward-thinking and out there.

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The online poll to me seems like a way to outsource the responsibility for picking the "wrong" girl Shepard.

Yeah, this.

Bioware should have had the guts to have a character designer make the Shepherd that best broadcasts the qualities they want the her to have. I have a tough time believing that a marines commander would wear her hair long and loose.

It's mildly disappointing but doesn't matter to me too much because I am able to make Shepherd look and mostly act the way I think she would. I'm at least glad that female Shepherd is now part of the face of the game, because I find her much more interesting and better acted than her male counterpart.

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C. I vote for C.

HURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR

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I checked out the different Shepards and I'm not surprised that they went for the blonde version. The others had hair with far less contrast, blending darkly in the background. Design-wise, the blonde hair was the most interesting. Either that or the darker-skinned one, which oozed with character.

I'm not interested either way though, I'll be playing with the gargoyle box version Shepard I've been playing with all this time. I'm commander Shepard and I approve of this message.

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Yeah, I should be clear that I'm not against the blonde design, and actually it's one of two that I thought were visually interesting (the same two Rodi liked, in fact). I find the idea that people are so angry about this choice more bizarre and intriguing, with the side note that it's strange that supposed feminists are being so brutally disparaging about the blonde design, as if being blonde makes one somehow an inferior woman from a feminist perspective.

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Yeah, the outrage shouldn't really be directed at the result of the poll (guess what, there would have been nerd rage no matter what version was picked).

Instead, we should consider that it took them 3 games and a fan campaign to even consider that there should also be a female Shepard in the marketing. I've played ME as both male and female, but thanks to the prominence of Default Shepard on the covers and everywhere else, I feel like when I play as a girl it's the "different" choice instead of one out of two equal choices.

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Yeah, the outrage shouldn't really be directed at the result of the poll (guess what, there would have been nerd rage no matter what version was picked).

Instead, we should consider that it took them 3 games and a fan campaign to even consider that there should also be a female Shepard in the marketing. I've played ME as both male and female, but thanks to the prominence of Default Shepard on the covers and everywhere else, I feel like when I play as a girl it's the "different" choice instead of one out of two equal choices.

I disagree that there is anything sexist about that. Mass Effect are deeply narrative games and they chose a character -at the root of the story- to serve as the 'face' of the games. It's actually a lot less logical to promote two characters at the same time: think about how confusing that would be. You'd think this game has two protagonists, a man and woman, fighting side by side. A series like Elder Scrolls solves this problem by not featuring a lead character at all, but rather letting the game world be its prominent image. That wouldn't work as well with Mass Effect, as it's so story-driven.

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http://kotaku.com/5826702/fans-picked-the-blonde-in-a-controversial-video-game-beauty-contest-but-thats-not-a-bad-thing

Kim Richards makes the point that this is the first time that female Shepard will be shown to the world, and says that "it breaks my heart that the mass public have gone for such the wishy washy, Barbie faced personality vacuum that is Shep 5. The modern day world is already so much more culturally diverse than yester-year, so why don't future representations reflect this? Isn't it about time that the cliché of a blonde-haired, blue-eyed pin-up was fazed out?"

Seriously? All faces are pretty much identical, it's just minor skin tone differences and different hair.

Personally I like #4 looks the most like a barbie faced bimbo. That hair style simply doesn't fit a soldier that wears a helmet 75% of the time. Even #6 is dubious on the hairstyle.

The article also linked a ME2 Sheppard, looks much more like the Sheppard I played with (*wink wink*)

femshep_picture.jpg

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I'm probably stupid, but I feel the more pertinent legacy of the poll should be that the Facebook voters, most of whom probably possessed mainstream sentiments about the place of women, appeared to take no issue with the idea of Shepard being female.

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I disagree that there is anything sexist about that. Mass Effect are deeply narrative games and they chose a character -at the root of the story- to serve as the 'face' of the games. It's actually a lot less logical to promote two characters at the same time: think about how confusing that would be. You'd think this game has two protagonists, a man and woman, fighting side by side. A series like Elder Scrolls solves this problem by not featuring a lead character at all, but rather letting the game world be its prominent image. That wouldn't work as well with Mass Effect, as it's so story-driven.

Fair point. I guess it's just my personal tiredness of staring at bald, constipated army dudes.

Then again, another big theme in Mass Effect is choice, so why not showcase the very first choice you make?

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I disagree that there is anything sexist about that. Mass Effect are deeply narrative games and they chose a character -at the root of the story- to serve as the 'face' of the games. It's actually a lot less logical to promote two characters at the same time: think about how confusing that would be. You'd think this game has two protagonists, a man and woman, fighting side by side. A series like Elder Scrolls solves this problem by not featuring a lead character at all, but rather letting the game world be its prominent image. That wouldn't work as well with Mass Effect, as it's so story-driven.

That's a fair point, but is there any reason why they couldn't have used default female Shepard for their marketing instead? It's a little bit like the affirmative action thing: in theory it shouldn't be an issue, but in a world saturated with male leads, would it have hurt to have taken a tiny step towards equalizing things somewhat? It's not like playing as female Shepard is the rubbish second choice tha they want to brush under the carpet or something. I wouldn't necessarily call it sexism, but certainly a missed opportunity.

I wonder whether the previous games would have sold less had they had female Shepard on the cover. I'd like to think not, but perhaps I'm being too optimistic.

Finally, I think probably my biggest problem with female Shepard, both new and old, is all the eye liner/mascara/whatever. I like how it looks, sure, but it doesn't seem very authentic to the role. I toned it down on my custom Shepard. There's no time for makeup; she's busy saving the universe! (And mining every single planet she encounters completely dry of all remotely valuable minerals.)

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